Thursday, December 3, 2015

Letter of Transmittal

03 October 2015

Dr Chong Fook Loong
Director of Building Research and Planning
Housing and Development Board
Block 190 Lorong 6 Toa Payoh
#04-510 Singapore 310190

Dear Mr. Chong

RE: Request for Proposals

This letter is to inform you of our acknowledgement and response to your letter of authorization. We are pleased to present you with the following proposal for upgrading older generation public housing buildings into green buildings. This will be in line with Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) goal of having at least 80% of buildings in Singapore to be green by 2030.

In 2005, BCA introduced the Green Mark scheme to encourage new buildings in Singapore to be sustainable and eco-friendly. In 2006, BCA released the Green Building Masterplan to motivate industry stakeholders to embrace green buildings. While these initiatives are critical and necessary (BCA has since released Green Building Masterplan 3 in 2014), we must not forget the many HDB flats built before 2005.

As of 31 March 2005, there were 879,556 units, and taking an average of 103 units per block according to teoalida.com, that would equate to 8,540 HDB blocks built before Green Marks existed. We must not forget about these buildings as they form a large percentage of all buildings in Singapore. If BCA wants to have 80% of buildings in Singapore to be green by 2030, we need to upgrade these old generation buildings with new green technology.

We are proposing the use of smart meters in individual homes of these mature HDB estates. These smart meters provide real time update on the amount of electricity or water being used. It is a good way to influence the residents to reduce their utility consumption.

We believe that education of the public over introduction of new technologies will have a greater impact on Singapore in terms of going green because of how wasteful Singaporeans can be. We are targeting the HDB flats because 76.3% of all dwelling units in Singapore are HDBs, which allows us to reach more of the public.


Yours Sincerely,

Siok Xue Yuan

On Behalf of Team “Old is Green”

Personal Statement

Being born in an era where the world spent most of its time talking about global warming, I am naturally interested in doing my part to help Mother Earth recover from the damage we humans have done. Where better to start than home, mainly the Housing Development Board (HDB) flats like the one I live in. These mass produced flats are abundant and most of them lack any green technology at all. It is extremely exciting to think that there are so many old buildings out there that we can implement our ideas on, giving our project a huge potential to succeed. 

Executive Summary

            Since its establishment in January 2005, the Green Mark Scheme is now ten years into operation. In the recently published 3rd Green Building Masterplan, Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has announced its plans on having 80 per cent of all buildings Green Mark certified by 2030. To ensure that BCA keeps its target in sight, the organisation has also set interim goals from now till 2030. From the 1960s till January 2005, a large number of Housing Development Board (HDB) residential buildings were built to provide roofs over Singaporeans.  These estates are old and have yet to be retrofitted to be energy efficient for the Green Mark Certification. Team Old is Green has seen this problem as an opportunity and have set our sights on the potential of retrofitting existing residential buildings to make them energy efficient. This proposal discusses why the team decided to take on the problem of retrofitting existing residential buildings and a feasible solution that should be made aware of to all consumers. With the green movement, every building stakeholder will stand to reap benefits and protect Mother Earth from further deterioration. With this proposal in place, the team hopes to reach BCA’s target well before 2030.

Reader's Response Draft 4

Reader’s Response to article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities” Draft 4

In the article “Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities”, Cho (2014) states that developing cities cannot sustain steady growth by ignoring economic, social, and environmental challenges and the impact of rapid urban expansion. The writer first introduces the Envision Sustainability Rating System, a tool from Harvard University used to measure the sustainability of newly built infrastructure. She then mentions the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) that is being built in Saudi Arabia with the Envision Certification firm at its roots, citing positive impacts on local communities. According to Cho, infrastructure sustainability has a huge role to play in the swift expansion of developing cities. While I agree with her and think that countries must look thoroughly into their city planning before they start construction, she did not mention critical points like how Envision is useful for developing countries and other alternative rating systems.

The first thing to know about Envision is how available it is to everyone, given that a lot of essential material is found free online. Envision's rating system is the current reference for best practices in building sustainable infrastructure (Nelson, 2015). Developing countries that may not have a lot of experience creating sustainable cities can definitely benefit from all the information Envision provides. Envision captures all the lessons learnt in developing and building sustainable projects over the years by developed countries. These lessons are then reproduced in the form of simple and easy to use checklists. And anyone can get hold of those invaluable checklists just by providing their email. Envision is extremely useful to interested parties in developing countries by being easily obtainable, which translates to small companies being able to create sustainable infrastructure without additional costs, something Cho did not mention.

One other point that Cho did not bring up is the existence of alternate rating systems in the industry.  Envision, being a comprehensive guide for creating sustainable infrastructure, will be useful for projects with multiple factors. But there are different rating systems that focus on projects that are much less complex and much smaller in scale (Vargas, 2013). In a small project where manpower is limited, a self-assessed system employed by Envision can require extra time commitment from a team that could already be working very hard. This is where systems like Greenroads are useful (Ninmann, 2012). Although Greenroads only certifies roadway projects, it is purely third party reviewed which means the project team can focus on the project and not on the certification process. A small project in South Africa called the Model Kloof pedestrian bridge used Greenroads as a pedestrian bridge was the only thing built (Greenroads, 2013). Project teams in developing countries with small projects, low budget or limited manpower can find rating systems like Greenroads extremely useful.

In conclusion, the article by Cho discusses about how building sustainable cities in developing countries is important and how Envision aids this cause. However, she did not comment on how developing countries have easy access to Envision and the presence of other rating systems that could be better suited to small projects.

(509 words)

References

Cho, H. (2014). Developing sustainable infrastructure in new cities. New Cities Foundation. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Greenroads. (2013). Model Kloof pedestrian bridge. Retrieved December 04, 2015 from https://www.greenroads.org/141/52/model-kloof-pedestrian-bridge.html

Ninman, T. (2012). Greenroads rating system is on a roll. For Construction Pros. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.forconstructionpros.com/article/10782771/greenroads-rating-system-is-on-a-roll

Nelson, D. (2015). Advancing sustainable infrastructure with Envision. Civil and Structural Engineer. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://cenews.com/article/10098/advancing-sustainable-infrastructure-with-envision

Vargas, S. (2013). Sustainability rating systems: broad based or narrowly focused? Civil and Structural Engineer. Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://cenews.com/article/9438/sustainability_rating_systems__broad_based_or_narrowly_focused_

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Critical Reflection: Giving and Receiving Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback has always been an important part of being human. From the day we were born, our parents have been giving us feedback on how to behave, what to do and what not to do. When we were young and we overstepped the line, our parents would scold or beat us. That was how we learnt to differentiate between right and wrong. As we grew older, we started to give feedback instead of just receiving them. The value of the feedback given usually increases with experience. For example, a tutor teaching language classes would give more valuable feedback than a student taking the class.

In the effective communications class, I got a chance to give and receive feedback. The feedback received from everyone was of significant value whether they were from a teacher or a student. If the feedback was good and it aligned with what I believed in, then it would reinforce my knowledge. If it was bad, then I would reflect on it and think of ways to improve myself. There were no bad feelings when bad feedback was given to anyone as the class genuinely wanted to help each other to improve. I understood that receiving bad feedback was a good thing, because that is the type of feedback that would help me improve.

Even though negative feedback can be really helpful, it must really come from the giver's heart. We must want to help others improve before we can give good negative feedback. This was especially evident when Brad gave feedback, as the sincerity can be felt through his words. Learning from Brad, we went off to give feedback to each other. When we checked through our peers' work and spotted mistakes, it reinforced the lessons taught to us and definitely aided us in our learning. Giving feedback is also a good life skill to have as one would want to know how to give a negative comment without hurting the recipient's feelings. Thankfully, the class has been very nice and all the feedback received and given were taken objectively.

To end off, I felt that this effective communications class is so effective because of the constant receiving of feedback. Here are two important lessons regarding feedback from this module that I have learnt. Firstly, receiving negative feedback is the best thing that can happen. It means that you will know where you went wrong and how you can improve yourself. Just like how a diamond with more cuts sparkles more, receiving more negative feedback allows one to shine brighter. Secondly, one must be sincere in order to give good feedback. Flattery is for fools and it does nothing to improve the recipient.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Lessons learnt from presentation on 09/11/15

The presentation on the 9th of November was the first presentation in my uni life. It was a good transition from giving presentations in the army, as the objective of this presentation was to propose ideas and try to sell them. Whereas in the army, the objective of the briefings I gave was to cover all the points required by the organisation. 

I chose not to introduce our ideas during the introduction of the proposal as I thought it would be more impactful to hear the ideas from my group mates at a later stage. I found out after the presentation that it was a grave mistake, one that I am glad I made here as it would have been much costlier if this happened at work in the future. The whole idea of a proposal presentation is to sell the idea, so I think our group made the mistake of going into the details of the ideas instead of selling them. Our presentation could have been better suited as a follow up presentation after our proposal is accepted. 

As mentioned above, most of the feedback given to us were about our content organisation. I will try to organize presentations to suit the audience in future. 

Our content organisation may not have been the best but I feel that our delivery was good. I think the good delivery came down to rehearsing many times and understanding each other's parts well enough that we know what the other members are going to say. We practiced on over Skype during the weekends and had physical rehearsals on Monday during the 4 hour break. The physical rehearsals were the ones that made the most difference as we corrected our stance, our hand movement and a lot of the transition during slides. 

Overall, giving this presentation was a great experience and it will definitely help me give better ones next time. 

The person who inspired me most.

To choose the person who inspired me most is not easy, I would have to decide between my mother and father. This seems natural because they are the two people I have spent most of my life with. But for the purpose of this post I shall talk about my mother (without taking any credit away from my father because he was largely influential in my life too).

My mother, is a selfless person like most mothers are. Having spent most of her working life at Changi Prison working as a counsellor after her graduation from NUS, she gave up working full time when she gave birth to my older brother (I have and older brother, younger sister and another younger brother). And became a full time housewife, taking care of all the household chores together with our then maid, occasionally giving tuition to kids for extra allowance. She could do this because my dad was doing well enough to support our living costs. Being a housewife is nothing glamorous and as a kid then, I did not appreciate her as much as I would now. My mother did all the dirty work with regards to us kids. She taught me how to wipe my ass (something I cannot imagine my father doing), made me study (which was hard for her because I was not naughty but I hated doing homework) and she made sure there was food on the table every night.
As we grew up, she continued her never ending work as a housewife, always looking out for us and taking care of my family’s needs. It was hard because she had to look after 5 others and after we moved into our current HDB home we decided to let the maid go, leaving my mother to do most of the housework.

She never complained about sacrificing her time for us, or not being able to dance after having us (she loved to dance since young). Only after we got older and became more independent did she start going out to do things she loved. Her dance classes became the usual every Saturday. We even watched her perform a few times at the local community centre.

That was when it happened.

In year 2013, I just graduated from poly and was waiting for my NS call up. My parents went for a routine body check-up, my dad went through it and came out without any new problems. But my mother had to stay for a night and do a scope, it was supposed to be just a day check-up. My dad came home and picked me up to go to the hospital. We went to her temporary ward and she was smiling to us. We talked like there was nothing wrong.
When we got home, my dad told me that they found a lump in her stomach, it was about the size of a fist. My mother had been diagnosed with stomach cancer.  The thing about stomach cancer is that it does not have glaring symptoms. Early symptoms include nausea, loss of appetite and abdominal pain. Usually, and as in my mother’s case, the cancer is only discovered well into the later stages when the symptoms become more serious like vomiting.

Treatment started immediately. The first option was surgery to remove most of the stomach, but that was ruled out when we found out the cancer had spread to other organs. So the next option was chemotherapy, which really hurts.

From around April to August (which was my enlistment month into NS), my mother went in and out of Singapore General Hospital so often that I know the hospital layout quite well. As time went on, she spent more time at the hospital than she did at home. She lost half of her weight, and her diet changed from solid to liquid to nutrient packs injected directly into her bloodstream. It was horrible to watch her go through so much pain. And even though she was going through a lot of pain, she always hid it from us. She would smile at us whenever we visited her at the hospital as if this cancer was just a little bit of stomach discomfort. She would just close her eyes when the pain was too much, and turn her head away so we wouldn’t worry. She fought hard, really hard. She fought because the thought of leaving us on this world was more painful than the pain from her cancer.

Then came my time to enlist into NS. By that time, she was spending more than half of her time in the hospital. My dad is self-employed so he spent of all his time with her. When she was in the hospital, he never left her alone until it was 2 hours past visiting hours to go home, just to go back to at 8am the next morning. Since I was in NS, I could only visit her on weekends. At that time, I hated NS so much because I wanted to be with my mother. But I figured I could make her proud probably for the last time by getting in the Officer Cadet School (OCS).

I finally passed out from Basic Military Training in October, but my mother was too weak to come and watch my parade. The rest of my family came and we took some pictures. My dad later told me that when my mother saw my pictures she was so proud. I had a one week break before I would find out where I was posted to (OCS or not). I spent all of that one week with my mother. When I found out I made it to OCS I was so happy, and I told my mother immediately. She smiled, but her time was running out.

On I went to OCS, where the tough training meant that I had very little time to communicate with my family. I told my instructors about my situation and I gave their phone numbers to my family so that I can be contacted whenever there was an emergency. It was the fifth day, a Friday, in OCS when my instructor pulled me out and asked me to get changed to book out. I ran all the way out from my bunk to the gate of the camp, got into a cab and went to the hospital.

My mother was so tired she could hardly open her eyes for more than a few minutes before closing it again. We knew it was coming. Her vital signs dropped dramatically and she was rushed into the ICU. There, she was hooked up to multiple machines that were keeping her alive.

On the 26 of October in the ICU, she drew her last breath and dropped a last tear. Just like that, she was gone. Throughout her battle with cancer, she showed me strength that I never knew she had. Whether her strength came from her love for us or her own will to survive, it was incredible. My mother could fight a battle she knew she was going to lose with such grit, and I learnt so much from her.

After a week of mourning, I decided that I would carry on my course at OCS to become an officer. At every point during the training where I felt like giving up, I would tell myself that my mother did not give up, and I must push on. After many months of toiling, I commissioned, but I still felt empty because she couldn’t live to see that day.

My mother showed me strength, courage, and above all, so much love. I feel so bad that I cannot repay her for all her sacrifice. So now the least I could do is to make my life count. 


My mum and dad a few months after she got diagnosed with cancer.